One of the final industrial sites along the Lehigh River in Allentown has been purchased by a developer that is working on several projects in the immediate vicinity.
Lehigh River Development Corp. VI LLC, a subsidiary of Urban Residential Properties, purchased 1 Pump Place for $16.2 million, according to Lehigh County property records.
Urban Residential is working on several mixed-use developments along the city’s riverfront, including four buildings with more than 1,000 residences that were presented Tuesday to the Allentown Planning Commission.
The 11-acre Pump Place parcel includes a 200,000-square-foot warehouse and 11,000-square-foot office building.
It’s likely, though, that those structures will be seeing the wrecking ball. The land sits between Buck Boyle Park and The Waterfront, the mixed-use development being built by Jaindl Enterprises. It is also bordered by the river and Riverside Drive.
John Palumbo, a partner with Urban Residential, told The Morning Call it’s too early to determine what exactly will go there.
“There’s lots of possibilities,” he said. “Our hands are full with lots of planning right now.”
The project sits in Allentown’s Neighborhood Improvement Zone, the city’s unique taxing district.
Nearby, Urban Residential is also getting closer to completion on the Neuweiler Lofts mixed-use project at the site of the former brewery.
Industrial use for the site goes back more than a century, and the name of the street indicates what was manufactured there. Aldrich Pump Co. had a plant and headquarters there until it was purchased by Ingersoll-Rand in 1961.
It operated until 1993, shutting because of “stiff competition” after Ingersoll-Rand combined operations with Dresser Industries. More than 200 workers lost their jobs.
Different businesses have used the site since then, including an Amazon truck terminal. Pump Place LLC purchased the site for $4.8 million in 2019.